Scapegoats or A Rival in Need is a Friend Indeed
by BulbasaurGirl03
Summary: Jessie, James, Meowth, Cassidy, and Butch find out about their Boss being imprisoned and, thanks to him, them being wanted dead or alive. Moreover, after a sudden car crash, trio and duo members are separated and have to work with their archenemies to find each other and not to end up in a local jail. But are they really as evil as everybody says? M rating to be safe.
1. Chapter 1: The News

"So, Meowth, since it was your plan, tell me, how much longer do we have to watch the twerps?! My hair will last a maximum of fifteen minutes more!" Jessie testily whispered to her pokemon colleague, trying to adjust the bun on the top of her head.

"You should've listened to me, when I told you to use more hairspray, Jess…!" James mumbled victoriously and proudly, and the next second received a strong punch into his shoulder.

"Listen, Mr. Groomer with a simple ponytail on his head, won't you just shut up?!"

"Hey, hey, guyth, calm down, bot of ya!" sitting between them, Meowth pushed his friends a little away from each other to more or less safe distance. "And rememba' to keep your voith down. Just a few mo' minuteth…"

As always, Team Rocket was stalking Ash and his friends under their usual 'businessmen' cover. This time they were spying in a local cafe, where the kids decided to have lunch before going for another gym battle. "As they say — a hungry trainer is a mad trainer," as Ash liked to remind his companions. No wonder, it was his favorite phrase ever.

"Um… excuse me, but maybe you'd like to order something…?" the barman suddenly interrupted their observation, making all three of them literally jump on their sits and quickly turn to him.

"Don't you ever scare me like that, you-!" Jessie, being even angrier right now, started to shout, but James managed to gag her with his hand right in time.

"D-don't mind her, sh-she always acts like this," he tried to calm everyone down, cracking his usual silly smile. "Only three glasses of water, please… Ouch, Jess, okay, sorry, just don't bite me, it hurts!"

"Again?! This is already the fifth time you ask me to bring you water! According to the rules, I mustn't have brought you it since the second portion!" but having realized, that he was screaming at the potential (actually, not) clients, sighed and added in a more or less calm voice: "I'm afraid, I can't do this, sir. You have to make an order in the next ten minutes, otherwise, I'll be forced to kick you out of here."

With these words, in purpose to seem very busy, he turned around and in a quick step headed to the people on the opposite side of the bar counter. Team Rocket pokemon sadly sighed.

"Cul, now we can'th even have thome flee glasses of wota'…"

"Stop whining, it's not the main goal we came here for! It's Pikachu! So, genius, why don't you finally tell us your plan?"

"Oh, yeah, light. Well, firthtly we-…" but Meowth was interrupted by their co-worker slightly nervously touching his and Jessie's shoulders, obviously willing them to pay attention at him.

"What is it?! You'd better listen to-…" she testily referred to him, but having seen his extremely terrified eyes, stopped and anxiously took his wrist. "James…? What's up, you okay…?"

"L…look up there, guys…"

Both his partners immediately raised their gazes at the thing he was pointing at with his shaking arm — a big TV at the top of the wall in front of them. But having heard just the first phrase they paled and froze with their mouths opened.

**_"…So, the Head of the notorious criminal organization called 'Team Rocket', Giovanni D'Ignazio, was arrested by Johto region police today's morning,"_** declared a woman, hosting the news program. **_"However, in order to commute his punishment, he obeyed the police orders and provided it with the locations of the main part of Team Rocket gangs, including the two of them in the Hoenn region. So, according to all their illegal deeds, the special forces were told to get them dead or alive. Also, now you can see the appearance of the members being in them. The special feature of one of the squads is a talking Meowth. They can make a getaway, so if you see a person similar to any of them, please, contact the local police immediately…"_**

"My Gosh…" was the only thing Meowth could mumble, shockedly staring at the screen with four photos of people, perfectly known to him.

"P…please, tell me I'm dreaming and that's just the worst nightmare ever… I-it can't be happening in reality… A-are these really us there…?" Jessie murmured mainly to herself, her eyes fixed on her portrait.

For a brief moment she thought of a phrase like: "And I'm still much more beautiful in real life…", but immediately threw it out of her head, knowing, that it's completely not the right time for jokes. Their brains were trying to deny what they have just heard and seen, but inside each of them knew it was a bitter truth and they couldn't do anything with it except for accepting it.

"And not only us, Jess… Look who's on the right…!" James pointed at the photos of a guy with short teal-green hair and a blonde with two mid-length pigtails. "Butch and Cassidy!.."

"No way…! Not this duet again! Hm, well, at least they do deserve it!.." on his female colleague's face, for the first time during last ten minutes, there appeared both happy and angry smirk, which, for some reason, made him shiver.

"I bet dey will say da same 'bout us…"

Since they were too busy examining the TV screen, they've noticed cafe customers' reaction only now. Some people were just murmuring something to each other, suspiciously looking around, some were not making any bones about keeping their voices down and holding back their emotions, so often you could hear someone screaming: "Yeah, that's how it has to be with the ones who steal and sell pokemon!" or "Finally our pokemon are completely safe!", and the most eccentric ones sometimes yelled: "They should've killed those scums even earlier!". The variations of the last phrase were mainly heard from sitting in the furthest and darkest corners of the cafe and, unusually for such early time, already pretty drunk companies.

But only one table was remaining completely silent, emotionlessly staring at the TV set, just like already ex-rockets. Ash, along with all his friends, hasn't said a word since the news program ended. They just didn't know what they should feel. Yes, Team Rocket, especially this trio and duet, were their enemies, and it was good, that now no one will steal other's pokemon, but… did they really deserve it…? Being killed or wearing stripes till the end of their lives? In fact, they were just a bunch of troublemakers, who were doing nothing but goofing around and hasn't stolen a single pokemon so far. Well, at least, the pokemon Ash knew about.

One moment James, Jessie, and Meowth suddenly felt five pairs of eyes gazing at them from behind. But even with loads of strangers and unknown people in the cafe, they easily realized who had been staring at them — three guys, one girl, one Pikachu, and one Skitty.

"You tink dey will go to da police?.." furry member of their team asked barely audibly, glancing back at the kids with the corner of his eye from behind his sunglasses.

"I don't know… I don't know anything anymore!.." Jessie unexpectedly angrily banged her fist on the bar counter, making not only her two friends but also a few persons nearby questioningly look at her.

"Jess…" still being a bit scared of her unpredictable condition, her partner carefully wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"So, are you finally ready to make an order?" barman's voice, which he tried to make as sweet as possible, abruptly reached their ears.

"Um… you know, we've just remembered that very soon we've got a… a meeting! Yes, a very important one!" feeling a sudden unstoppable urge of immediately getting out of this place, James even too roughly grabbed Meowth's tail, making him squeak and growl something under his breath, clasped Jessie's arm and dragged both of them outside. "Bye! Thanks for the water!.." was the only thing he shouted, awkwardly smiling, before closing the glass door and swiftly pushing his friends down the street, having left almost all the customers silently see them off with confused looks.

"It was them, right?.." May quietly wondered, being more than sure in their positive answer.

"Definitely…" boys mumbled at the same time.

"Pika…" even Ash's pokemon slowly nodded.

"Nya…?" Skitty meaningfully meowed.

* * *

"Alwite, alwite, we gotcha, Jimmy, can ya finally let me go?.. It really hurtth!" Meowth whined after about a minute of his lavender-haired colleague pulling them backwards by the way they came to the cafe about an hour ago.

"Huh?.. Oh, yeah, sorry…" without stopping, he finally released the cat, making him resentfully rub his hurt tail. "I just… had a strange feeling-…" James was about to let go of Jessie's hand when she suddenly squeezed it back herself.

"Feeling of desire to leave that place…?" she asked quietly, not looking up at him. "I had it too… I… felt like everyone was staring at us and was about to call the officer in there…"

Two of her friends exchanged confused gazes. Even after losing to that twerp in the Pokemon Contests she had never been that depressed. But despite her condition, James felt an unexplained pleasure of having his partner that close to him. No, they did hug each other when facing something scary, but this has already become rather a reflex. Now, however, it was a way different sensation, like she really trusted and needed him by her side. Moreover, this was a completely different kind of fear. A vicious, sticky panic, which was absorbing the heart more and more with every second - this was the thing each of them felt in a more or less degree when their minds have finally moved away from the shock and proceeded the recent events.

"H-hey, listen…" he slowed his step a bit, instinctively glanced into his teammate's face, and then even through her dark sunglasses could clearly see an unnatural shining in her eyes, which made him stumble for a brief moment. "This may not sound very convincing, but still… we're disguised, and we shouldn't worry about being arrested right now…" while talking, he was trying to calm down his shaking arms and believe in these words himself.

Jessie just sadly, and with it thankfully lifted the edges of her lips, still having let one tear swiftly roll down her cheek. Her partner reflexively raised his arm to wipe it, but the risk of getting a slap and ruining the moment stopped him mid-way, so he simply comfortingly laid his hand on her shoulder. He hesitated for a couple of seconds, not knowing what to say. He really wasn't used to the moments of being the strong one in their trio.

"I understand you. I really do. You're not alone, Jess," for his own great surprise, he said it as confidently as he only could.

"Th-thanks… and sorry…" from her sudden apology, James confusedly curved his eyebrow. "I mean… it's our common trouble right now… and I'm not the only one who needs support… Even though there isn't already any Team Rocket, we are still a **team**… right?.."

He knew, that they had been just her seething emotions, who have been talking for all this time, and inside she was still his usual arrogant Jessie. It was only a temporary state of hers, which he, actually, was pleased with much more. However, sooner or later, that selfish greedy girl will replace it again. These thoughts made him feel a glimmer of disappointment in his heart, but he tried to get rid of it and consolingly smile.

"Right. Now, let's finally get to our little camp and then think of what we should do next."

"Yes. Let's go," she replied already way more determinedly and both headed to the forest, having completely forgotten about the other member of their 'team', who has been walking almost insensibly slightly behind them for the entire time, and still unconsciously tightly holding each other's hands.

_"And when will ya two, lovebirdth, marry alweady?!"_ Meowth thought, automatically whispering this under his breath and risking to receive two strong cuffs on his furry nape from both sides. But luckily for him, the 'lovebirds' didn't pay any attention to his murmur.

* * *

"Mitch?! You here?!" Cassidy worryingly shouted, carefully coming into a little hut. But there was no answer. "Bob…?! Biff…?!" only silence again. "Goddammit, Butch Fletcher, that's not funny at all! Answer me!"

"Oh, wow, so ya still do remember not only my name but my surname as well! Impressive! And I'm not the one havin' fun, Miss Hightown!" to her great relief from behind the sofa there was heard a familiar irritated hoarse male voice. "Well, of course, I'm 'ere! Why should I be somewhere else?" he finally put the magazine he was reading aside, released a little cloud of smoke with his cigarette and raised his head to his partner. "Actually, I thought ya went to look around. And why are you so stressed out? Somethin' happened?"

_"Thank God, the police are not here yet. We still have a chance to flee,"_ she thought happily but said a completely different thing.

"You… You're such an idiot, Clutch…!" she quickly passed him by, still being angry at him for not answering her, and headed to the closet.

"Hey, no need to be that rude, ya came in barely a minute ago! And it's Butch, you've just said it right yoursel-!"

"We don't have time for this kind of stuff! We have to be very quick! And say thanks I have come back at all! Now move your ass out of the couch and start packing your things! They may arrive any minute!" Cassidy shouted back in her usual bossy tone without even turning around, but even like this Butch could see her legs and arms trembling, while almost everything she was trying to lay in her bag was slipping out of her hands.

"But what the hell has happened, who will arrive and why do we hafta leave if we have just moved in yesterday evenin'?!" her colleague was still insisting on her explaining all her hurry and fear, but put out the cigarette and started taking his clothes out of the closet anyway.

"God, can you just do what I say without asking any questions at least once?!"

"I **always** do what ya tell me to!" he replied resentfully, making an accent on the second word.

His co-worker wanted to say something as a comeback, however, he suddenly stood in front of her, grabbed her wrists and roughly pressed her to the nearest wall. She began struggling under his body weight, but the unexpected feeling of his warm and soft fingers gently touching her smooth cheek made her gradually give up and just confusedly stare at him, deeply blushing. He had never dared to take control over her in such a brutal way before. And, oh Lord, even though she was trying to not to show it, which she was, as always, pretty good at, in fact, she really loved it, how he could be both fierce and tender at the same time!

"So now ya listen to me, Cass. You're right, if somethin' bad has happened we have to work fast. But there's no room for panic. And unless I know what exactly you're scared about I won't be able to prepare for it properly. So, why don't ya just tell me everything while packing up?"

Meanwhile, blonde's heart was beating with the speed of light, along with the hundreds of butterflies racing in her stomach, because of her partner's face being only a few inches away from her one and that low and totally smoked voice of his, which has been always giving her goosebumps. Many people considered it as jarring and squeaky, but she secretly just adored it. In her eyes, it made him so manly, strong… maybe, even hot…

Desperately resisting the urge to do the things she'll definitely regret about, Cassidy let out a long sigh, slightly smiled and determinedly nodded, showing gratitude and agreement with his words. Now they really didn't have time for these romantic things, though either of them was trying to hide their disappointment. For a brief moment, they accidentally locked their gazes on each other's eyes so that both were forced to overcome an extreme awkwardness once again. Having already realized how uncomfortably close they were to one another, the male member of their duo slowly went away from the girl, constantly looking aside.

"Yes… no panic… thanks for calming me down, Butch…" also not willing to meet his eyes, she took the phone out of her pocket, began swiftly searching for something, monotonously clashing her long nails against it, and in about ten seconds turned the screen to him. "Here. Read it and I'll pack everything."

"Okay…" full of both curiosity and fear of the unknown, he took the device and started looking through the news article. "Giovanni… Team Rocket… arrested… Johto…" his dark brown eyes were widening with every word he mumbled under his breath. "Wait, what?! I-is it Boss?! H-how the hell-?!"

"It has been only the first sentence. Just read till the end," she responded surprisingly calmly and even chuckled a bit (though, it sounded more like a nervous hysterical laughter).

He has. Silently. Completely. He didn't know whether it was his shock or desire to find out every detail written in the news. As he finally glanced through the last sentence, still without saying a word, Butch joined his co-worker, also starting to frantically stuff in his backpack. Both were throwing in almost everything, not caring if they really needed all those things.

An unexpected shrill sound of the police siren and loud squeaks of the tires, obviously created by a few quickly stopped cars, made the two of Team Rocket ex-members freeze and remain motionless for a couple of seconds, until their brains fully realized what was happening outside. Cassidy's arms weakened and she dropped some cloth onto the bed. Even with her naturally pale skin, she looked white as death. It seemed she was gonna faint any moment now. Staring somewhere down with a detached from the reality gaze, she slowly reached to Butch's hand and as tightly as if the next moment he could easily vanish, squeezed it, moving a little closer to him.

"Sorry, Cass…" he suddenly whispered, slightly hugging his partner's trembling body by wrapping his arm around her waist.

"I know what you mean, but… you're not the one to blame. I just should've briefly told you everything instead of beating around the bush…"

"Well… how about considering it as our common fault?.." he cracked a weak but still comforting smile and was about to say something more when one of the police officers outside roughly commanded through a megaphone:

"There's no way out! You're surrounded! It will be much easier for all of us if you just surrender and come out with your hands up!"

"You know, Butch, I've never thought, that it will end up like this…" Cassidy hopelessly laid her head onto his shoulder.

There was a moment of silence and she expected to receive just tighter embraces, but instead, her colleague unexpectedly released her, made a few quick steps back to the closet and began chaotically throwing out everything they didn't manage to look through. It was obvious that he was searching for something.

"It won't," he finally answered her, surprisingly confidently enough for her to somehow believe him.

"What do you mean…? It accidentally turned out, that you've got a teleport or a thing that will make us invisible?" she couldn't help replying with a mock, although her hope revived again in her heart.

"No, unfortunately… but still… I've remembered 'bout something… I think… this can help… Damn, where are they?!.. Just don't tell I've returned th-! Oh, there you are! Yes!" he could barely hold himself from jumping and clapping happily.

"What is it?" also willing to look at, as he was sure, their saviors, she leaned over his shoulder, but the next second shockedly opened her mouth and didn't know how to react. "A-are these… **guns**?!"

"Remember that mission, when Boss told us to be as careful as only possible and to use them just in a very extreme case?" her partner successfully ignored her rhetorical question.

"And we haven't used them… You're a damned cunning, smart asshole, Butch!" by that time a happy hopeful grin has already appeared on her face.

"I just thought that they could come in hand someday, ya know. Anything can happen," also slyly smiling, he stretched one gun to her.

"Hey, but shoot only into their legs, arms, guns or cars' tires. Try not to kill anyone," slightly tossing a weapon in her hand, she warned him strictly, but also jokingly smirking at the same time, so it didn't sound as rough as she thought it would. "If we get caught after all, I don't wanna us to be imprisoned for a murder too," she added.

"Heh, sure."

"I repeat, come out with your hands up! Otherwise, we'll be forced to break in!" a megaphone voice was heard again. It sounded much more irritated than before.

When they both took their backpacks and were already about to exit through the backdoor, since it was a bit closer to their van, the guy suddenly laid his hand onto his ex-teammate's back and looked into her eyes. She turned around and immediately recognized that gaze — a mix of worry, fear, and embarrassment.

"Cass… they also have these 'toys' and they won't hesitate to use them, so… just be careful, okay? Heh, don't wanna lose you in such a stupid way…" he let out a stiffed sad laughter.

"Of course, I will," she kindly replied. "You… try not to die or get caught either, Hutch," she couldn't help saying this.

Butch just rolled his eyes, but couldn't get angry at her. For some reason, exactly under such circumstances, for the first time, it made him chuckle instead of groaning, as 'messing-up-his-name' puns usually did.

Having determinedly nodded to each other, they abruptly knocked out the door and ran outside, hoping to get, if not safely, then at least alive to the truck… Or, at least **get** to the truck at all…

* * *

Thanks for reading! Don't be shy and like/follow/comment the story if you liked it!

• Coming next: Jessie, James, and Meowth just couldn't keep themselves from running into a trouble. An extremely life-threatening trouble, to be more correct.


	2. Chapter 2: An Unpleasant Finding

That was the only time when they were happy, that unlike Butch and Cassidy, Boss has never reserved any accommodation for them. Now, this unfair fact has saved their trio from a pretty unpleasant and premature act of arrest.

"Oh, finally I am flee flom dis tings! Dey are so uncomfortable! I knew I sould've taken the ones a few sizes bigga'!" the pokemon pleasantly claimed, taking his undercover coat and hat off.

"Good for you… Now, how about giving me a hand-… a paw, I mean?!" his friend testily complained while stuffing his backpack with some supplies left. "And you too, Jess. You know, I can't pack all of **our** belongings myself!"

"For first, I don't have paws…" she leisurely mumbled and demonstratively used some hairspray on her bun, pulling a couple of naughty ringlets together. "And secondly, I'm adjusting my hair, by following your advice, actually. You don't wanna us to get caught just because of my locks suddenly deciding to reveal their true beauty, do you?"

Trying to joke, she desperately willed to act like nothing has happened, though now it didn't sound and feel even half as funny as before. Her teammate only rolled his eyes and angrily grumbled under his breath:

"God, she was so much nicer back then on our way here…!"

"Huh? You said something, James?"

"Well, I…" he stumbled for a long moment, thinking of the best possible answer, but then his gaze fell on three almost done bags and the only remained clothes he was holding in his hands. The confidence immediately came back by itself. "I said that I had already packed everything, and we can move on!"

Now it was his turn to demonstratively throw those few left things into his backpack, do its zip and put it on, waitingly and proudly looking at his friends. Meowth quickly followed James' example, having tossed his little bag over his shoulders. Jessie only shrugged, slightly chuckled and, having carefully put her hairspray in, took her rucksack.

"Let's go," she said much more seriously.

"Right," boys nodded, and all three walked deeper into the woods.

After nearly an hour of wandering among the trees, they have finally found and started walking down an almost empty highway, with just a few lonely cars rarely passing by. And ever since then, they haven't spoken a word. Somehow, each of them knew, that they all just needed some time for themselves, to think of… of everything… and nothing at the same time. How will they manage to hide from the police, where will they live (and no, variant ' a prison cell' didn't really match their plans), who can they trust, and yet a lot of such things were restlessly spinning around in their heads. But it seemed, that neither of them didn't mind that dead silence, which has been filling the air for already about twenty minutes.

"Hey…" James was the first one to start a conversation, his eyes still steadily fixed on the horizon line. "So… you have any idea of where we should head now?.."

"Um… nope…"

"Not a thingle tought…"

"Oh, well… alright… We'll just… go ahead…!"

Meowth and Jessie only indifferently slowly nodded, murmuring a quiet "Uh-huh…" under their breath. A pause, now much more awkward, fell between them, and the guy has already regretted about ruining that sweet soundless harmony.

"Guyth!" the cat pokemon suddenly exclaimed, way too loudly for the ears accustomed to silence.

"What is it?.." after wincing and getting back to reality, his friends questioningly and still a bit detached stared down at him.

"Well… I'm not sure 'bout it, but… take a look at dat."

Jessie and James obediently directed their gazes to what he has spotted and was pointing at. It was a gray two-storied building, peeking out of the high trees and standing in about two hundred meters away from them; its rare small dark windows with no glass expressing nothing but coldness and depression.

"I wonder what it could be…" he continued his thought and looked up at them as if expecting them to know the correct answer.

"I don't have a single idea…" Jessie mumbled, but the next second became surprisingly encouraged, and even a cheerful smirk for a moment ran through her face. "But whatever it is, according to its look, it seems to be uninhabited. This can become a perfect shelter for some time!"

"U-um… A-are you sure about it, Jess?.." her partner unexpectedly asked in, for some reason, terrified voice.

"Well, of course, I am, James! Let's go!"

"Yeah, you're light! C'mone, Jimmy!"

"N-no, wait a sec! W-what if there are some good roots for it to be uninhabited?.." he nervously looked up at the sky, thinking up of the examples. "F-for instance, it can be a hazardous protected area… or there can live some dangerous pokemon…! O-or else, there can be Gastly and Haunter! You remember that tower and wrecked shi-?" but as he lowered his head again, saw, that his teammates have already been in about a dozen of meters away from him, determinedly heading to that chilling building. "H…hey! A-alright, I'm coming! But don't say I didn't warn-!"

"Yeah, yeah, we know, you have warned us…" Jessie shouted back, without turning around to him. "Calm down already, we've got some more important things to worry about, than a simple 'Haaaunted Hooouse'," she made a fake spooky voice, a mocking careless smile never leaving her face.

"Please, just don't joke like this!" he pleadingly squeezed her arm.

"Okay, okay, don't stress out that much," since she couldn't stand him whining, the girl tried to tranquil him, this time seriously.

"Listen, Jim, dere's noting scary in it. If dere was somethin' abnormal, I would sense it. Don't worry!"

"You'd better be right, Meowth…"

At a close look, the building seemed even more filthy and repulsive. A high concrete fence with a barbwire all around it; just a few trees and bushed, now being nothing but clusters of totally dried out branches; thick gates on almost all the windows — all this seemed to unconsciously make every single of pretty rare by-passers feel like a part of a second-rate, working only on cheep screamers horror game or film.

"A-alwite, I must admit, dat dis thin' really can give da creeps…" the talking pokemon moved closer to his friend's leg.

"A-are you serious?!" it seemed, that Jessie hadn't felt a thing about the terrifying atmosphere around them. Though, it wasn't completely true. Despite all her efforts to deny this ghost stuff, the last strong cold gust of wind made goosebumps run through her whole body. "Honestly, sometimes I think I'm the only man among the three of us!"

_"Well, it doesn't mean I'm not the most handsome man, of course…"_

"Okay, girls, if you're so horrified, I'll go first."

She turned around, determinedly exhaled, and took a few steps ahead, when suddenly a man in all brown uniform appeared from behind the fence, blocking her way. Judging by his great height, wide shoulders, and, on the whole, pretty frightening appearance, it was easy to conclude, that he was some kind of security guard.

"Oh, hi… we just thought that this place was uninhabited, and we could sta-…" she started, innocently smiling, but was rudely cut off by man's rough and indifferent voice.

"How the hell have you three got in here?! It's a protected area!"

"Told ya…" James whispered accusingly, coming closer to his partner, and then tried to answer: "Um… we just got lost a bit… we've never been to this region before… we're the… ehem…"

That fatal moment the opinions of who they are unexpectedly separated.

"…researchers from the university in Kanto…!"

"…Johto radio-stars…!"

"…toulists flom Sinnoh…!"

A couple of long and tensed seconds of silence seemed to last a minimum of five minutes. The trio members were confusedly staring at each other, while the guard got even more annoyed and gave them a skeptical look. He was already about to testily kick them out, when the recent news and orders suddenly came to his mind, telling him, that these three are something more than just a group of freaks.

"Wait a moment. Has your Meowth just talked?.."

"U-um, n-no! Y-you must've simply misheard the **two** of us!" trying to sound natural and successfully failing at it, Jessie nervously stepped on the tail of already extremely terrified pokemon, who, for his friends' surprise, didn't make a sound, and only clutched his teeth from the pain, guiltily gazing aside.

"That was a rhetorical question!" the harshness of his voice made all of them flinch again and get a little closer to each other. "Don't you try to fool me! Now, how about showing me your documents?!"

Another wave of panic covered them, the second one during the day. And now it was even more horrifying, than a few hours ago, mainly because of their possible end standing less than in a meter in front of them.

"R-right! The documents! L-let me see, I-I remember putting mine somewhere here!.." starting to search through all his pockets for the nonexistent pieces of paper, James was desperately trying to save as much time as possible, hoping for at least a little miracle to happen.

But it didn't. Being sick of this tomfoolery, the man roughly snipped his hands, then angrily groaned and pulled Jessie's and James' sunglasses and hats off, letting girl's hair eventually take its original crescent shape. Both gasped, instinctively trying to cover their faces, but the guard was already grinning with great, frenetic pleasure.

"So, you're the ones the whole Hoenn is looking for, huh?"

"L-listen, sir, m-maybe we could make it out someho-?" the guy started, stuttering, but his voice immediately dropped when he saw his interlocutor taking three pairs of shiny handcuffs and, what was the most frightening, a gun from his belt.

"Finally, we'll be respected! Now, I recommend you to surrender, put these chains on and follow me."

"H-hey, we don't want any troubles, o-okay?.. We just-…" his teammate warily held out her hands, trying to calm him down, as far as it was possible. But, again, she was cut off by the sound of a removing fuse and the weapon, aiming at her.

"I guess, you didn't get me right. I **demand** you to do what I say! And no stupid things, such as trying to escape or use the pokemon, otherwise…" the grin on his face became even wider. "Actually, about the pokemon. Give me all of your pokeballs. I'm sure, they're still all stolen from the other, fair, trainers."

A moment ago the only emotions prevailing within the trio were unbelievable fear and a little glimmer of hope. But now, it seemed, that one of them had suddenly forgotten about the whole situation they were in, about the gun and the possibility of being shot.

"How dare you say such things?!" Jessie's anger made her lose her mind for a minute, and she stepped ahead, followed by her friends' confused gazes.

"J-jess, what are ya-?!" Meowth tried to catch her hand, but she just waved away from him.

"For you to know, we've caught all of these pokemon ourselves! We're their rightful owners, they do love us, and we love them too! If you want to take them away from us, you won't be any better, than Team Rocket!"

"Settle down!" both James and Meowth screamed, and the guy swiftly pulled her back by tightly holding her arms pressed to the sides of her body.

"W-we're so sorry, sh-she is just a hotheaded person…" silly smiling, he was constantly cautiously looking at man's face.

And it has greatly changed. After hearing girl's last sentence, his expression turned from pleased and malevolent to more than furious. The cheeks immediately burnt with redness, and in his eyes there appeared a bright flame of offense along with the desire to revenge. All this brought Jessie back to reality. The next moment there came an awful realization of what she has just done.

"I… I didn't really mean to…" she tried to find an excuse but was too scared for her voice to listen to her.

"You know… since you're wanted dead or alive, there's nothing, preventing me from killing you right now…"

This maniacal whisper made all three shiver and recoil. Then everything happened too fast. A shot, disgusting smell of powder in the air, closed eyes, racing heart… and, for some reason, a strong push to the right and a loud moan…

* * *

Thanks for reading! Don't be shy and like/follow/comment the story if you liked it!

• Coming next: a lifesaving coincidence, not so pleasant savers, 'you can't have a good adventure without a chase', and a really ill-placed cliff.


	3. Chapter 3: Hello and Goodbye

**Don't know why but for some reason, in this chapter there is a pretty good number of swear words. You have been warned.**

* * *

"Heh, losers!" Cassidy shouted back the moment her partner strongly pressed the gas pedal.

They did it. They ran through a couple of dozens of fully armed police officers. Due to the ex-rockets' unexpected escape, for a long moment, all the cops stood still, letting them safely make nearly half of their way to the truck. But it was completely different from all those gunplays from the action movies. No epic jumps and dodges, no accidental headshots, no explosions or splashing blood. Everything was like in a mist. They didn't hear and see almost anything, except for their destination, having even forgotten to shoot back, unless the first policeman returned to reality and fired in their direction. Of course, they did face the officers and, moreover, the jail cells before, but, firstly, those times they had their Boss to bail them out, and for second, nobody was trying to kill them.

But still, both of them eventually managed to hop into their van — Cassidy into its body, and Butch into the driver's cabin. A second later the car jerked, made a bunch of low rumbling sounds and finally rushed ahead.

"You know, Butch, that was even easier than I thought," the girl said, placing herself on a passenger seat and trying to sound as it was nothing, while her heart was still racing inside her chest.

"Yeah. I wonder how they got into the police if so many of them couldn't even stop two almost defenseless criminals," her teammate replied with a pleased smile.

"You okay, by the way?" she asked and laid her hand onto his lap.

"'Course I am. Not a single scratch. And you?" while waiting for her answer, Butch reflexively glanced at the rear-view mirror and suddenly flinched. "Wait, what's that?.."

"Huh? Where?!"

"On your temple…"

"Ah… lemme…" slightly panicking, she swiftly took a little mirror out of her pocket. "Oh, this…? It's just a tiny cut. Don't worry," brushing away a little trail of blood, she gave him a carefree grin, which, however, didn't pull a worried expression away from his face. "What?.."

"Well, it's not that tiny, Cass… I mean… a few more millimeters and you'd have been…" he couldn't help nervously gulping. "I told ya I didn't want to lose ya. Things are really serious right now…"

"I know," Cassidy reassuringly touched his forearm. "And I care about you so much too. But I'm fine. And we're gonna be fine, no matter what."

"Guess, you're right…" Butch said, regaining his confidence.

"Anyways, I've noticed it only now, but it's rather quiet around. Shouldn't they… kinda, chase us or something?.."

"Huh, it seems that those suckers realized their defeat and gave up. Or even without aimin' we were able to hole most of their tires. We sure were lucky!"

"We were… Well, only if you don't count the fact that we're out of job, we don't know where to go, and that almost all of Hoenn special forces are after us," bending her fingers, the girl started counting skeptically, gazing into the window.

"Come on, I'm just tryin' to be optimistic… Uh, at least as optimistic as it's possible… For example…" he peeked aside and then pointed at the river they were driving by. "Oh, look, now we can watch a bunch of wild Lotad! It may sound strange from an ex-rocket, but ain't they cute?"

"And this is the one who said that we had to be serious…" Cassidy tenderly smiled and gently caressed his hair. "Better, watch the road, naturalist."

_"Even in such situation, this guy can be extremely adorable… That's exactly what I **love** you for, Butch…"_

"Sure thing, Cass," he smirked back.

* * *

This way another quarter an hour has passed. They were just driving along an empty highway, chatting, joking, and sometimes laughing as nothing has happened, though both of them knew that something bad definitely had to happen. But apart from Butch and Cassidy's talks and some frequent noises of wild pokemon outside, it was strangely calm and quiet. Too quiet for a couple of outlaws running away from the entire region's police.

"I wonder how the others are doing…" the girl sighed after they took one more turning.

"You mean, Hun, Attila, those two sisters, Annie and Oakley, as far as I remember?.."

"Well, yeah… We weren't really close to each other, but still… And Professor… um, Mamba-… Butch, stop!" without finishing the phrase, she suddenly grabbed guy's arm, making him reflexively press in the breaks. Both felt a powerful push ahead, but escaped with nothing more than a fright, thanking to the seat-belts. They knew these things will save them someday…

"W-what happened?! N-never ever dare to scare me like that!.." her partner yelled testily, but also discomposedly looked at her.

"And you don't shout at me! Open up your eyes, read this, and better say thanks to me, instead!" she replied at the same tone and pointed to the right.

Behind the window, there was a sign — large, old, wooden, with already lots of bunches of moss, covering nearly a half of it and making it really hard to read what was written on it. But if you took a close look, it still was possible.

"Ha… No, Hoe…mn… Vi…wes…te… Oh, Western… Prira… Pri…on… Right, pri…son…" gradually realizing the words he has just said, he slowly moved his hands away from the steering wheel and strongly paled. "I… I see now… sorry…" he managed, not taking his gaze from the sign.

"Were there… any crossroads, or anything like this…? Don't you remember…?" Cassidy asked already with no anger, hoping for a positive answer.

"I… I guess, no. I don't remember any, at least… Heh, well, now it's more than obvious, why the cops didn't chase us…" he mumbled and let out a bit hysterical laughter.

"We were just driving ourselves right into the jail… And they perfectly knew it…" the girl slowly finished his thought. "So, what are we gonna do now?.. We can't go neither back nor ahead…"

"W-we have to figure somethin' out… At least, 'ere we have some time to think for a little…" trying not to show his panic, Butch nervously stared up, at the car's grey plain upholstery.

"Bob…" his teammate suddenly slightly pulled on his jacket's sleeve.

"I'm thinking, Cassidy, just give me some time…!" not even noticing her calling him wrong again, he jerked his shoulders.

"No, look there."

She pulled his arm stronger and he finally turned around, to the main entrance of the prison. And immediately opened his mouth in shock. His partner, on the other hand, meanly grinned.

"Are these…?"

"Yep. These losers again. Heh, how dumb are they to get caught that soon?"

"Um… I'm afraid I must interrupt your happiness and remind you that we're in the same situation and that we don't even have a plan," the guy said, having crossed his arms on his chest, and still with a bit of mean pleasure looked at the three silhouettes.

"Oh no, we **do** have a plan."

"Really? And what…" her malevolent expression made him flinch, "…is it?"

"Easy. See? While these three goofs distract the guard, we'll be able to slip past."

"Hm… this may work," his usual self-confident smirk appeared on his face again and, with some strange look in his eyes, he glanced at the girl. "Genius, as always."

"U-uh… thanks," she replied uncertainly, slightly blushing at such compliment. "Now, let's g-…"

However, she was cut mid-sentence by a sudden loud bang. A moment later, one tall figure pushed another away, then stepped back, rocking, and finally learned forward. Then, the two others came closer and pressed to it. At the sight of this, a strong shiver ran through Cassidy's and Butch's backs. Some inner instincts were telling them to do something, but they were just too dumbfounded to even move or speak.

"Sh…shall we… help… or-…?" the guy started, not taking his gaze away from the scene occurring in about a hundred meters in front of them.

But his teammate didn't listen to his rhetorical question. Followed by his questioning eyes, she stood up, went through the truck's body, having barely fallen over one of their backpacks they left behind the seats, and squatted near the back doors.

"You drive closer, and I'll pull them inside," she said drily, not really willing to do it, but her brain persuading her, that she must save them.

_"Dammed compassion and sentiments!.. This could've been a perfect scheme!.."_

"Roger. Get ready," Butch replied and started the car again.

* * *

"James, no!" Jessie screamed as her partner recoiled and bowed, loudly heavily breathing and having wrapped his arm around his abdomen.

"Here we go. Now, if you two don't wanna be the next ones, you'd better obey me," the guard growled, now with an obvious wide maniacal grin.

A mix of emotions covered both Jessie's and Meowth's hearts. Fear, anger, and great guilt were the main things they felt. Girl's sapphire eyes became wet and shiny and started trembling. She had already clutched her fists and was about to punch that moron when one thought crossed her mind. _"It's all my fault… Why am I always so harsh?! If I just had tried to keep calm at least once, now James wouldn't have been… have been… Goddamnit, I hate myself! It's… too late to fix this, but… I can at least try to redeem…"_

"Alright…" she suddenly mumbled and immediately felt three shocked gazed on herself. "Okay, we'll… we'll do as you say… just, please, let me-… us take a look at him…" she continued after taking a deep breath.

"Go on…" the man said quietly. "Nothing. Stupid."

But she wasn't already listening to him. _"If he decides to shoot, then I deserve it…"_ She lower her eyes and kindly looked at Meowth, for some reason slightly smiling. And it seemed to him, that it was the first time she has ever looked at him or anyone else with such desperation and regret. After nodding at their teammate and receiving the same little positive nod, Jessie finally headed to James, still shocked pokemon slowly following her.

"Thank you…" she managed thought the oncoming tears and a vile lump coming up to her throat, tightly embracing the guy. "And sorry… I'm so sorry… really… I didn't mean it to… end up like this…"

Meowth, on the other hand, wasn't saying anything, only hugging his best friend's leg with his eyes shut.

"Don't… blame yourself…" James mumbled and gently put his free arm on girl's back, having exhaustedly leaned on her with all his body. "We… still wouldn't have given him… our pokemon… right…?"

"R…right…"

However, this touching scene was rudely interrupted by a huge white van unexpectedly stopping with a loud screech in just a few inches away from them. Two slender arms appeared out of it, grabbed Jessie's and James' coats' high collars and strongly pulled them inside.

"W-what?!.. How dare you?!" the guard yelled in confusion and instinctively aimed his gun, but Cassidy has already almost closed the doors.

"Sorry, mister, we're borrowing them for some time!" and shouted back into the car: "Go!"

The truck rushed forward right in time, having avoided a series of belated shots. But the trio was not too happy to be saved like this.

"Hey, let me go! It hurts!"

"If dat's a kidnappin', ya could've been at least a bith mole caleful…!"

"Who do you think you are?!"

All of them began screaming but silenced as soon as these familiar voices they were expecting the least to hear now reached their ears.

"Listen here, if you, three ungrateful idiots, liked that jail so badly, Bill will be happy to drive you back!" the girl growled testily, standing right beside them.

"Lord, ya just like teasing me, or what?!" was heard from the driver's seat.

"Well… kinda, Mitch," she said already kindly.

"Really?!.. You are-…! Nga, forget it…!"

"Wait… Cassidy…?" Jessie stopped their friendly talk, being both unpleasantly surprised and, after all, a bit grateful to see her rival.

"And Batch…" James added with the same despise.

Butch opened his mouth to argue again, but in the end, only sighed and angrily whispered under his breath:

"No, I really have to change my name…"

"Such a sudden change of hearts… What happened to you two?" the girl mocked.

"Well, unfortunately, being not as heartless as you think, we couldn't leave three pathetic souls dying in a prison," Cassidy replied in a fake sweet voice.

"But even so, it does **not** mean that we are pals now and that we'll ever be," her partner added more or less seriously.

"Oh, thank you so much for calming us down… I was afraid we'd have to hang out with you after this…" an injured guy surprisingly still had strength for some sneers.

"Only in my worst nightmare."

After two synchronous giggles, there were a few seconds of relative silence. And though it was pretty tensed, it still seemed that neither of them simply didn't know how they should break it, and should they at all. Say thanks? No way, Jessie was too proud and boys were too confused to thank their archenemies. Argue? But still, they would've been dead and imprisoned if the duo hadn't appeared. Moreover, none of their conversations has been filled with anything but reciprocal mocks and insults, which, frankly speaking, they all didn't have any strength left for right now.

However, the solution came by itself. Due to all this unexpected rescue, for some time James even forgot about his wound and that great pain he was lucky to feel just a minute ago. But, unfortunately, it didn't last long, and after another few stones and pits, it all returned, making him moan and hug his belly again. His friends worryingly turned to him.

"It hurts dat much…?" Meowth laid his paw on guy's lap.

"Hey… let me look at it," Jessie unconfidently held out her arm, but stopped in about an inch away from his body and looked up at him, as if waiting for his approval. "May I…?"

Her partner only slowly nodded and weakly smiled. As carefully and gently as she could, the girl opened his blueish jacket, already partly covered with brown blood, unbuttoned the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up. Both blushed a little and tried not to meet each other's eyes. With her fingertips, she touched a little, bleeding hole in his abdomen. The areola of burnt and extremely sensitive skin around it immediately reacted, and he flinched, gritting. She paused and guiltily glanced at him, but met only his smirk — a bit trembling, with bitten lower lip, but still full of strength. Suddenly, a spark appeared in her eyes, as if she remembered about something very important.

"Wait a sec…" swiftly, she moved closer to her 'patient', leaned over his shoulder and hopefully looked at his back. Then, a sigh of a great relief followed these actions. "God, thank you…" she whispered.

"Wat ith it, Jess? Ya figured sometin' out? Can it be fix'd somehow?!" the pokemon wondered with true worry.

"Well… Hm, only one hole… I hope it's still inside… there isn't much blood, at least…" Jessie started mumbling, not caring if anybody else heard her or not. "Not in the center, fortunately… it mustn't have hurt any internals… well, a maximum of a liver, I guess… So…" she made a long pause, uncertainly gazing at the wound, and then said already louder: "It's definitely not fatal*. Will it work if I just try to stop the bleeding, disinfect and tightly bandage it?.." she questioned herself, as if waiting for a correct answer from her other self.

"Not fatal?.." James and Meowth asked confusedly, and the guy let out a slight laugh, though even this simple deed turned out to be pretty painful. "Heh… Honestly, I was ready to say bye to this world…"

"Oh no, not on my watch, dear," happily grinning and barely holding herself from tightly embracing him, she took off her backpack and began frantically searching for some first aid stuff. "Hold on a bit. There must be a few bandages and some painkillers in here… James, lay down on your back, but very carefully, try not to move the bullet off its place… We're so lucky that one of us used to attend a nursing school," she declared the last sentence proudly.

"Has been **expelled** from a nursing school, to be more correct…" Cassidy intervened, still standing nearby and glaring at the trio.

"And who the hell asked you?!" Jessie hissed with her teeth clenched.

"Well, at least we won't have a corpse here," without turning around, her rival headed to the driver's cabin.

The other girl only growled. _"Bitch, as always…"_

"Alright, listen, I know ya hadn't seen each other for a while and are really happy to meet, but can't all of ya please just shut up?! It's kinda difficult to drive a truck along a mountain road with four persons 'kindly chatting' behind!" suffering from an abrupt pulsing pain in his left temple, coming probably because of the stress, for the first time during the last hour Butch felt a need in silence. Besides, his partner's last phrase was already way too much, even for them.

Bewildered, everybody signed off and stared at the back of his seat. Being able to finally rest his ears and head, he contentedly exhaled and smiled with relief. _"Thanks…"_ Placing herself beside him, Cassidy only carelessly shrugged, hemmed, cross-legged, and folded her arms on her chest.

"Fine, maybe I got carried away a little bit…" she grunted, sullenly gazing away.

"Hey, guys," James stated some time later, in an undertone, not really willing to irritate their driver, "you know, I've realized-…" but the fact of having a bullet in his own flesh made him stumble and rapidly gasp for air a few times.

"Ya souldn't talk two much, Jim. It hurts ya," Meowth exclaimed anxiously while helping Jessie by holding the first aid box for her.

"No, I'm fine…" he negatively shook his head, though his friend was definitely right. It **did** hurt, sometimes even to breath. "I just wanted to say, that… theoretically, since we haven't hurt or stolen and given to the Boss a single pokemon, we are kinda… innocent, aren't we?.."

His observation came so sudden and seemed so obvious, that his teammates unsettled and exchanged abashed looks. Indeed, during these few years, Team Rocket HQ hasn't received any living creature from them.

"Heh, this will strongly slap my pride, but I must admit, that it's the first time ever when I'm really happy that we sucked at catching pokemon," the girl simpered, with still a glimmer of self-disappointment in her eyes.

"If so, I wonder what on the earth kept Boss from kicking you out of Team Rocket," Cassidy interfered again, leering back at them while taking a bottle of water out of her backpack.

Now, though, she was sincerely curious. So was Butch, who had already dealt with that quick headache and was keeping his ears opened to hear, as they thought, a quiet and half-hearted answer. However, the next second he regretted not covering them instead. Having only heard a mocking snicker escaped their foes' mouths, Jessie sat motionlessly for a short moment. She willed to just silently stand up and burst all her anger in a few punches and swears right now, but in the end, she somehow managed to calm down her emotions, placed some little bottles at the box with a red cross being drawn on it, sighed and turned around, clutching her fists.

"That's not your fucking business!.. And don't you two ever dare to talk with such disregard about what **she** has done for me!"

"You mean… your moth-?" Meowth and James both questioned, feeling a bit scared of girl's current unstable emotional condition, but she sharply turned back to them, which, as always, made them flinch and moved closer to each other.

"Yes, **her**!" she shouted, preventing them from finishing that too personal and hurting word she didn't want everyone except for the closest ones to know.

"Got it…" the duo whispered unwillingly, as she leered back at them.

"Listen, does it mean we're somewhat not guilty, too?" Butch referred to the blond beside him. She made a short interrogative 'huh' sound, realizing his question, then scowled and crossly replied:

"Don't equalize **us** with **them**…!"

"I'm not!" he said a bit resentfully. "But don't forget, that now being good is… kind of, a **good** point."

"Yeah, but unfortunately, the police don't give a shit about it and it'll get us only more troubles if we try to explain everything to them…"

"Oh, come on, you — good guys? You must be kidding," James mocked, trying to cheer up still depressed Jessie with this. Despite their tries to talk quietly, the trio managed to hear their private conversation, having heeded in purpose for that.

"'Mr. and Miss Top Agents'," with a weak smirk, the girl eventually fell for that. However, the answer turned out to be more than serious.

"You don't know anything, so shut up."

"'Top Agents' don't stick up in the office with paperwork all days long…"

"And are not used only for the most ridiculous missions nobody wants to work on!.."

"Or when Professor Nambo needed something for his idiotic experiments…"

That moment they have completely forgotten about their enemies carefully listening to them, and sounded as they were complaining about their lives to a psychologist.

"Thank God, he didn't experiment on us or our pokemon."

"Houndoor is still sometimes mad at me for using that rage-increasing thing on it…"

"So does Hitmontop…"

"And why the hell did we have to face those nasty kids during every single mission?!

"Just like it was some stupid TV-series, where they were the main heroes and won no matter what, even if it was physically impossible!"

This phrase made Jessie, James, and Meowth strongly shiver and admit, that it was the first time they could agree with them. They also used to think about it a lot. Every time, even when they were able to succeed, even those rare times when they were playing fair and square, a 'miracle' happened, and — boom! — they ended up being the bad guys and blasting off.

"Always the same dumb excuse for failing. No wonder Boss got so angry at us…"

"Especially, after that Moltres we couldn't capture… He was mad like hell…" both cringed, not willing to remember this.

"Hey, wait, wait," Jessie was the first one to come out of confusion and close her opened in shock mouth. "And why did he call you his best workers and keep you in Team Rocket at all then?.."

Her voice caused a frightening realization of them just revealing their deepest secret to them. But when Cassidy, reproaching that uncontrolled burst of emotions, was about to sharply tell them to back off, a sticky lump appeared out of nowhere in her throat, and she could only angrily claw on her seat. Since Butch had to watch the road, he couldn't afford to ashamedly turn away. Moreover, it was obvious now, that they won't leave them alone unless he tells them the bitter truth. And what does their reputation already mean when the whole Team Rocket is gone and they will never see each other again?.. Won't they?..

In the end, after a heavy sigh, he gathered all his strength and spoke drily:

"We **were** the top agents, but in some time almost all the other groups started showing much better results… except for you three, of course," he couldn't help saying this with a mean momentous smile on his face. "And, well… we started failing," he continued unwillingly again. "So, he ended up giving us only little work or sending us to the archive when everyone else was on their 'important missions'…" he played the ape while saying the last two words. "And he kept calling us his best workers just to tease us… Alright, are you satisfied now?!.."

"Oh… so someone has just… lost their trust, haven't they?" though it cost James a huge effort, he still couldn't resist the urge to mock them.

"Said the ones who have never even gained it!" Cassidy's harsh comeback echoed in the van. "That bastard simply underestimated us…" she added calmer, feeling both anger and pleasant joy of finally being able to call Boss like that.

"But he sure didn't while talking to the police and describing our merits in that article…" her partner mumbled.

"What article?" Jessie suddenly inquired.

"The one where he said, that the four…" the other girl glanced at Meowth, but having seen him releasing his claws and hissing, just like an ordinary cat would do, ambiguously corrected herself: "…and a half of us were barely the most dangerous criminals in the world…"

"Really?.. I wonder why he has done this…"

"I dunno, maybe he wanted them to send all the forces to Hoenn and lose their guard to try to escape from Johto…?"

"By sacrificing his 'best' workers… scum…"

Unexpectedly, they were brought back to the rough reality and their current situation. Too rough, actually. A row of deafening bangs filled the air. A moment later, with a shrill ringing, the side window shattered, its glass scattered all around the interior of the car, leaving long cuts on the flesh.

"Get down, everyone!" Cassidy yelled as loudly as she only could to outvoice the noise, hiding behind the seat. "Butch-!"

"I'm kinda driving!.." he shouted back, squirming and desperately trying to both control the van and not to catch a bullet. "And what took them so long?! I was already worrying there would be no chases!"

"Not the best time for jokes, frankly speaking!"

"Know, sorry!"

He wanted to say something more, but after another line of shots, all his attention abruptly turned to an acute pain in his left shoulder. His entire arm seemed to burn. He inhaled rapidly and moaned, his eyes closing by themselves.

That second the firing unexpectedly stopped. Everybody was about to sigh in relief, when they felt a powerful jump, because of which the blonde had her head strongly bumped into the iron wall.

"Are you okay?.." Jessie weakly held out, referring mainly to her teammates. They only slowly nodded a couple of times.

"Uh… What was that?.." Cassidy asked her partner, rubbing her hurt forehead.

"Just… another big hole on the road… I haven't noticed it…" he replied, quickly blinking and trying to take control over the van again.

"Be a bit more careful…!" her voice sounded a little testily.

"Well, sorry, it's not very easy to drive with your shoulder being shot!"

After that, she immediately forgot about her bruise, which now seemed nothing. Speechlessly, she rose on her feet, approached to him, and said more than seriously:

"Get up."

"What?"

"Get up and let me handle the truck!" she repeated her command and took guy's forearm.

"No! It's dangerous, they may return any second!"

"Thanks for the care, but it's as dangerous as a shot driver!"

"You don't even know how to do it!"

"As if you have a license! Now, don't be stupid and go get some medical help," the girl said a bit softer, and then turned her head to Jessie with some kind of plea, though she knew this would ruin her pride.

"Oh, and I thought I had been expelled," she looked back at her with both faked uncomprehending and mocking smirk.

"You have been expelled because of your awful voice, not your skills," Cassidy aped her.

"Heh, yeah, I forgot, you're an expert in awful voices…" her rival meanly giggled, glancing at Butch, but still got up and, holding her backpack with one hand, came closer to them.

"Hey-!" for some reason, unconsciously trying to defend him, she took a few steps forward, but his suddenly confused and anxious call made her stop.

"Cass, we've got a problem…"

"What is it this time?"

"A damned cliff ahead, and it's too late to stop!"

The next awfully long moments felt like it was a slow-motion scene. The wheels lost the ground, keeping helplessly spinning around in the air; the lorry seemed to hover for some time before finally starting to fall and leaning backward. With a loud smack, the back doors swung open, welcoming everyone to go outside. Since James and Meowth were the closest ones to a newly created exit, they also were the first ones to fall out. Jessie managed to take a hold of the seat and swiftly place herself on it. Cassidy, on the other hand, appeared to be much less lucky and could just grab one of the backpacks before following the guys with a muffled scream. The only two persons left inside exchanged terrified and bewildered gazes. Then, because of the wrong weigh distribution, their transport abruptly tilted forward, quickly heading to the ground. Girl's reaction was faster. Without fully realizing what she was doing, she took the remained bag, which somehow happened to cling to the seat, with one hand, clasped Butch's arm with another, opened the passenger door, and jumped into the trees.

* * *

***Yes, I've been studying this stuff while writing. The sources are in Russian, though, so I doubt that you will be able to read them. But just believe me. I did read them. At 3 a.m.**

***Don't throw any heavy objects at me, I love Pokemon with my entire heart:)**

Thanks for reading! Don't be shy and like/follow/comment the story if you liked it!

• Coming next: what can be worse than being stuck one-on-one with your archenemies' irritated injured partners?


	4. Chapter 4: With no Partners nor Pokemon

* * *

**No, I haven't died! I just had such tensed October that I had to put the writing aside for a while. Anyways, I hope you'll like this chapter:)**

* * *

James and Cassidy managed to regain their consciousness almost at the same time. And if their teammates happened to land deep into the forest, they were not that lucky (if this word can be relevant in such situation) and were lying about just a meter away from a high abyss.

"Mh… what happened…? Hey, are you okay…?" the girl mumbled, motionlessly lying on her stomach.

"I'm fine… Well, at least as fine as I can be with a hole in my body…" the guy replied from the behind. With their minds still being slightly blurred, they couldn't fully identify each other's voices.

"Oh, right, that shot… I'm sorry this happened to you…"

"Come on, thanking to you, I'll be alright, Jess…"

"Glad to hear this, Bob…"

"Wait, why the hell have you just called me-?.." both started together, but suddenly stopped, at the same time as well.

Weakness immediately flew away, and they abruptly sat up, staring at each other with wide-opened eyes. A long moment of tensed silence and terrifying realization filled the air.

"Heh… if he was here, he'd definitely be happy that you've said his name right…" James slightly smiled, but followed by Cassidy's both angry and confused leer, got serious again.

"He's Butch, actually," she hissed.

The guy was about to mumble something to himself but made only an unexpected hoarse moan instead. After one wrong move, the wound started pulsing again, causing the strongest pain he's ever felt. Panting, he shut his eyes and grabbed his belly.

"Pfft… no wonder Jessie couldn't even properly help her partner," Cassidy snickered.

"Hey… don't you think it's so easy… to bandage someone… especially in a rocking car…! She did her best…!" being constantly interrupted by his own gasps for air, he still intended to defend his teammate.

Strangely, but only silence was the answer. Not really because of his words, though, but mainly of the sudden thought that her archenemy and the person she cares about the most in this world being apparently stuck with each other. And this was the only time in her life when she wanted Jessie not to be a loser. He did need help. Not as much as James, but a massive bleeding was not the best scenario either.

Meanwhile, feeling the pain gradually becoming less acute and strong, after a short hesitation, the guy hadfinally decided to take the risk and start getting up. _"She said something about moving the bullet… Well, this can cost me a few litters of blood and, maybe, a whole life, but I have to find Jessie and Meowth. Alright, Jim, just be careful — no abrupt moves and leading forward. This will definitely be hard, but try not to die…"_ Mentally talking to himself, he surprisingly quickly rose on his feet. Not saying a word, Cassidy wanted to do the same thing, but just as she tried to move her legs, an awful ache made her sag and bite her lower lip, almost causing it to bleed. On her left ankle, there was a huge purple-reddish bruise she somehow hadn't noticed before.

"Need help?" seeing her unsuccessful and desperate attempts to overcome the sufferings, he resolved on showing at least a bit of compassion, though the words still appeared to come out pretty dry. However, as he expected, her reply was not that friendly.

"I can take care of myself…!" she sputtered and slapped the hand he extended to her.

"Broken?"

"Of course, not! Don't you see that I can move it?!.."

Not willing to peril his lifeeven more, he slowly stepped away and stared ahead, waiting. He didn't even know what made him do such a thing, but for some reason, he knew he couldn't just leave her like this. She was a human, after all. Aggressive, bossy, arrogant, and bitchy, but still a human, and a girl as well. Moreover, according to her current condition, he didn't really want to have her possible death on him.

Meanwhile, Cassidy didn't have time for daydreaming. Filled with thoughts of how to reduce the pain and at least get up, she finally had her sight caught by a long branch, lying almost beside her. Without posting, she reached outfor it, stuck it into the ground, and leaned on it with all her body weight, having quietly groaned. James turned around. And with the help of her lining gaze, immediately understood that, for his own health's sake, he should just stay away right now.

_"They shouldn't have landed too far from us. Don't know whether it will work or not, but dogs should have good sense of smell, right?.."_ Trying her best not to collapse on the ground again, she leaned on the nearest tree, and, hoping for her idea to work, put her free hand into the pocket.

"Alright, come out, Houndo-!" but instead of Sableye's, Houndour's, and Raticate's pokeballs, her fingers felt nothing but the thick cloth of her dress. Panic instantly overwhelmed her. "Come on, you must be here! I remember taking all three of you with me! You… you couldn't have fallen out by a simple danmed fall!.. That's ridiculous!"

Alas, none of her screams and pleadings brought back her pokemon. She sighed, angrily and helplessly at the same time, and unconsciously turned her head to the guy. For that short moment they met their eyes, and both could clearly see sincere worry and fear in them.

"Cacnea is gone too…" James said quietly, being all hundred percent sure that Cassidy didn't care about it at all.

"Let's… let's go… We won't get anything by lying here, whining, and complaining."

With these words roughly spoken, she leaned on her improvised cane and proudly (as proudly as her condition could allow her to) headed into the forest. However, the problems didn't end here. Orange and yellow leaves have already covered the ground in a thick layer, making it barely possible to see what's underneath them. After the girl took a couple of so-called strides, something rapidly jumped from under her feet. An offended Zigzagoon testily hissed, sleepily yawned, shook offthe leaves, stuck to its fur, and quickly disappeared in the woods. Reflexively, she recoiled and was about to irritatedly scream at the poor animal, but couldn't keep the balance and instinctively leaned back, hoping for some support. Unfortunately, these actions were followed by a traitorous crunch of the branch. Being able to only shockedly stare ahead, she soon found herself rocking near the cliff's edge, ready to take the final step. Having closed her eyes, she started falling back, but suddenly felt someone tightly holding her hands. A moment later, both James and Cassidy were already speechlessly panting, unconsciously holding each other's shoulders.

"You should… look what you step on…" his voice was relieved and strict at the same time.

"Y…yeah… Thanks…" after realizing all the awkwardness of this situation, she let go of her savior's frameand tried to stand herself.

"You okay?"

"I guess so… It's not that painful for not being able to walk," in spite of wagging from time to time, for her own great surprise, she could relatively normally stay on her feet. Smirking to herself, she raised her eyes to the guy and shuddered. "Uh… You're… bleeding even more…"

"Mh?" he glanced down and saw that the blood has already soaked through his bandages and could be seen on its upper layer. "Nah, I'm fine… Can handle this…" James waved, trying to seem strong.

_"He could've died because of this…"_ as this sudden thought crossed her mind, goosebumps displeasingly covered blonde's skin. _"Maybe… he's not that much of a weakling as I thought… And not that bad, after all…"_

Meanwhile, James even too determinedly made his way to the trees they used to lie underneath. With girl's quizzical gaze locked on him, he raised one arm and slapped some branches above his head a few times. After a quiet rustle of the leaves, a plain blue backpack, similar to the ones all Team Rocket agents always received along with their uniform before the missions, fell down on the ground. Cassidy instantly realized that it was hers. With his own rather tiny and extremely light, compared to the fallen one, bag still hanging on his shoulders, the guy had already heavily signed and unwillingly clenched its upper holder, when some rushing hobbling steps were heard from behind. The next moment girl's slender fingers took an uncommonly firm grip on one of the straps, which seemed a little bit too long for a moment, even though she clearly remembered adjusting them for her height.

"Give it to me," some soft notes still could be heard in this harsh command as she pulled the backpack to herself.

"Huh? But-…"

"Listen, I'm not telling you anything about your one, carry it as long as you want to, but at least leave mine for me. I'm not dying. Moreover, you're not in the condition to lift anything too heavy," she perfectly knew how many things she had taken for their two-week operation — as any self-respecting woman would. Surprised, James has opened his mouth to protest again but was stopped by girl's index finger poking into his chest, and her rough and a little awkward: "Now, ask me at least one question, and I'm gonna punch your freaking wound."

With these words and an abrupt strong yank, she finally received her rucksack back. By inertia, both rocked but fortunately didn't fall. Satisfied, Cassidy surprisingly didn't put it on, but knelt beside it and started palping its sides in search for a zipper.

"You may be under disguise, but I have to cover the uniform with something," she explained, having felt a little cold metallic thing in her hand. "Alright, where's my-?.. No… please, just… Come on, really?!.." she already had no strength to shout and ended up helplessly groaning when instead of her favorite dark red jacket she pulled out a couple of crumpled T-shirts, obviously a few sizes bigger to fit up for her. A slightly nervous chuckle escaped her lips. "And why am so lucky today?.."

"Ah, yeah, turn around, sure," James' sudden apologetic voice brought her back to reality.

"If you haven't noticed yet, these are not my things," Cassidy said after flinching and glaring up at him, trying to stay as calm as possible. However, the next thing she heard has completely nullified all her efforts.

"Well, isn't it common to share some clothes within couples?"

"You know-…" Cassidy began but immediately stumbled, having fully realized the question. "Wait, what?! I-! W-we're not-! W-who the hell told you we were…" she made a short pause, feeling heat rushing to her cheeks and frantically trying to swallow a huge lump stuck in her throat, "…a-a couple?!"

"You are not?" sincere amusement in his voice made her flush even harder due to both anger and embarrassment.

"No, we are **not**! W-what on the earth gave you such thoughts?!"

"Um, you just worried about him so much in the van…"

"As if friends can't worry about each other…" the girl grumbled, but he didn't seem to care much about her comment, as his lips curved in a sly smirk.

"And, for example, the fact, that you're denying this so furiously right now."

The answer was more than hesitant. She had no desire to think of her already mixed emotions, not to mention speaking about them, especially with the one she was forced to be with at the moment. After a short moment of staring blankly and motionlessly at her hands, she finally let out a loud, long grunt, closed her eyes, and mentally counted to ten, calming her racing heart down and normalizing the uneven breathing. Any word she'll spill, even a choked whisper, will play against her in this situation. Knowing this, Cassidy zipped the rucksack back, stood up, swiftly slung it on her shoulders, and, having said simple: "Think how-ever you want," as indifferently as she only could, proudly limped into the woods, not caring about the propose of her changing the clothes she had a minute ago. James only snickered softly, walking behind her, in a safe distance of three-four meters.

* * *

The last things Butch remembered almost clearly were a tight grasp on his arm, a short fall to the trees, a bunch ofpowerful hits on all the possible branches, and finally, on the ground.It took him forabout quarter an hour to relatively regain his consciousness and try toweakly open his eyes. Due to a reflex to an already a bit forgotten bright sunlight, it didn't have much of success, though. The soft grass was unpleasantly tickling the face, making him eventually sleepily moan and rise on his elbows. This position, however, didn't last long, as agreat pain in the shoulder immediately returned, and he fell on his back again.

"Oh, finally. You know, it's already got pretty boring being here on my own," he suddenly heard from the left. Jessie was standinga few meters away from him, leaning on the tree,her arms crossed on her chest. A thin bloody line on the side of her head almost matched with the magenta hair and wasbarely visible on it. "Get up already, we have to find the others as quickly as possible," she added coldly, thoughthoughts of James' wound hasn't left her mind for a single second so far.

"Mh?.. What?.." having somehow managed to sit, rubbing his eyes, Butch was still trying to recall the recentevents.

"Let's go, goddamnit!" girl's voice slightly rose in its usual irritated manner. "We don't have all day to lie hereon the grass and enjoy the sun, Butcher!"

"To start with, I'm not Butcher!" this neverending argument returned him to reality for good and all. "And in case if you have forgotten, I'm kind of injured-!"

He was about to demonstrate his shot arm, but the moment his gaze fell on it, silenced. It was tightly and accurately bandaged under his now bloody black T-shirt and the uniform jacket, the sleeve of which was simply hanging on his shoulder. Jessie quietlyproudlychuckled, enjoying guy's confusion. After a long moment of staring at his wound, in the end, he also smirked, closed his eyes, and began getting on his feet.

"Why so kind to me?" he asked sarcastically.

"Well, no matter how hard it is for me to admit, butwe, like, owe you two for saving our lives," she replied, approaching but not giving him a hand.

"Heh… thanks," he mumbled, yet a bit unwillingly.

"Wow, the very first time in my wholelife!"

"Consider it the last one, too."

Two mocking, but for some reason also joyful smiles never left their faces. To be honest, both hated this as much as they loved it. It has already become some sort of a ritual— to exchange some offensive punchlines every time they met, saw, or even looked ateach other.

"Furthermore, I don't wanna have a complaining and whining man beside me," Jessie continued her thought, getting serious again. "Though, I should've already got used to it long ago…" the last sentence escaped fromher mouth much quieter,and despite its context, caused a tender smile with no glimmer of angertoappear on her still a bit dirty face; that smile you often have when remembering something extremely joyful.

"Who told ya I would've been whinin'?" Butch countered offendedly, and it sounded nothing like a question at all.

"You would've been, believe my words,"she rolled her eyes and chuckled as it was an obviouswell-known fact.

"We'll see about that…"

Having heard his annoyed hiss, the girl simply shrugged and let him have it his way this time. She could scoff athimand look atthis pissedoff face all day long.During those coupleof silentminutes, while Butch was shaking off the dirt and dust, and checkingly touching the bandages, her eyes were locked on him. Somehow, even thoughshe's never missed a singlechance to insult him,he hasn't made her feel even half of the disgust that Cassidy has. For a moment,a crazy, for the first sight,thought of him being not that bad ran across her mind, but she just mentally laughed at such an unjustified abruptchange of her heart.

"Hey," he unexpectedly spoke to her, "if you have one,why don't ya use a flying pokemon to search for the others?"

"I…" this definitely took her by surprise. Inside her head, she angrily yelled at herself for not having done such an obvious thing earlier. "Actually, I was just gonna do so," she murmured, trying to hide the embarrassment. However, just as she reached to her pocket to release Dustox, a slight panic came over her, getting bigger with every second. "Wait… Where could they…? Maybe in the other one…? No, no, no, I couldn't have lost them, could have I…?" having turned around and desperately searching through all the possible places where her pokeballs could haverolled into, Jessie wished with her entire heat to find at least one, at least Wobbuffet, only not to leave hereone-on-one with this guy.

"Something wrong?" again, Butch's words made her stronglyflinch. Paleness changed to an unwanted blush.

"It seems… seems that I've dropped all my pokeballs somewhere when we were falling down…"

Surprisingly, she didn't hear any mock from him. Instead, he instinctively patted his own pocket, but having felt nothing but his lightning, shuddered.

"Sweet… stuck with another nasty girland withno pokemon… Am I in some cheapmediocre adventure film with nothing but danmed cliche…?"he grumbled under his breath, then,trying to calm himself down, heavily sighedand slowly ran his hand through his messyhair. "I just hope all ofyou areokay, guys… and you too, Cassidy…"

A sudden police siren wailing interrupted their thoughts. And according to its major loudness, the distance between themwasnotbigatall.Bothstronglyshiveredand nervously gulped.

"Alright, we really have to move on."

Jessie shortly nodded and made afew steps ahead, but her compelled partner didn't move.

"You coming?"

"Yeah. Just a sec."

Abit irritatedly, she turned around, but then, with one of her eyebrows raised, only curiously stared at him. Having taken off his jacket, he began trying to turn it inside out with his uninjured arm.

"What are you doing?"

"They do know my face, but still, I don't wanna have a 'Hey there, I'm that wanted guy from Team Rocket, imprison me for all theeternity!' sign on me," Butch replied, tossing already plainclothes over his shoulders.

_"I must admit, this was prettysmart…"_ the girl thought but didn't make a sound,except for a little indifferent snicker.

"Come on," he muttered, having tossed his backpack, which has beenlying beside him for all this time, over his good shoulder andbeing already a couple ofmeters ahead of Jessie. She silently followed.

_"Damn, is it just me or it has reallybecome heavier…?! I don't remember taking**that**many things with me… Nah, probably I'm just tired. No wonder, though."_

While having these thoughts,he reflexively reached out to his pocket again; a burning desire to soften the current situation with a couple of cigarettesbuilding inside him by leaps and bounds. However, as soon as he had already been about to lighten one, a strong slap landed on his hands, making him flinch and almost drop the lighter.

"Hey!" he turned to the source of his frustration.

"You're not smoking with me around," it didn't sound like she wasjoking anymore.

"Aw, ya care 'bout me? How sweet of ya. But you don't have to," Butch teased, but didn't try to smoke once again.

"You care about your health yourself. Passivesmoking will harm this beauty," the girl demonstratively waved her hair back with one hand. "I don't wanna have my lungs fullof your smoke and my body smell like cigarettes instead of perfumes."

"This hasnever bothered Cass, so you can get over with it, too."

"Don't compare her and me!"

"Well, and what if I don't listen to you?" after such daring and even a little bit too childish protest, he was praised with her evil glance and pursed lips.

"You'd better do," Jessie hissed and strongly clenched his bare forearm, almost cutting its flesh to blood with her nails. And considering that he had already felt too much pain for today, the guy grudgingly gave up and returned the lighter and a cigarette into the pocket, having defensively raisedhis arms afterwards.

"Alright, alright, I've put them back, see? Cut it out," after thishe had finally got free from her close grip.

"That's more like it…"

"Brute force, huh? No wonder those two are under her thumb…" rubbing five red and slightly tinglingmarks,he whispered under his breath, but even so, the phrase managed to reach his companion's ears, sharply turning her expression from victorious to angry and frustrated.

"Excuse me, what?!"

"You've perfectly heard me. We hadn't met often recently, but what I'd seen was quite enough.And don't even start telling me it's not true."

This time it was turn for Butch to proudly chuckle, ending their conversation, and pick up the pace, letting Jessie,confused andred-faced, have some time withher ratherconcerning thoughts of their relationship among the trio. They**were**,**are**, and**willbe** bestfriends. They could havearguments and disagreements in some things, but even with this, they've always ended up remaining the closest ones to each other.Well, at least she wanted to believe she was not the only one thinking so. However, as she unconsciously reminded herself ofhow many of their conflicts hadstarted because of her jealousy, selfishness, and wicked ideals,goosebumps trailed down her back. An awfully sticky feeling of guiltshe has already experienced today tightly grasped onher heart.

A thought of calling Butch a henpecked himself has crossed her head a few times, but she was too busy trying to make up her mind. And in a couple of minutes,she eventually had to swallow her pride and accept, that he was somewhat right. But, of course, not a single sign of it appeared on her face, even when she caught up with him again, clenching the straps of her bag andacting as nothing important has happened.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Don't be shy and like/follow/comment the story if you liked it!

• Coming next: nine pokemon with completely different attitude are trying to persuade themselves that they're being searched.


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